Page 388 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 2

"I don't know if this had anything to do with her heart. She was having stomach pains."

"It has everything to do with it." I slowly stood up. "I'll be back."

"You can't leave. Scar won't stop crying. She needs you."

"I can't..." I shook my head. "I can't look at her right now." I walked over to the door.

"Penny needs you here. You have a kid that needs you. And any minute now, you'll have another one. The lawsuit can wait. You need to be here."

I pushed open the door.

"Penny never left your hospital bed after you got shot," he said to my back. "Never."

"That's the thing, Rob. I was never worthy of Penny, not the other way around." The door closed behind me with a thud. If Rob was expecting me to feel guilty, that wasn't going to work. I couldn't feel anything but the numbness creeping into my bones.

The Light to My Darkness - Chapter 37

Monday

James

"He withheld information!" I slammed my fist down on the desk.

The man sitting across the desk from me jumped. A small man. One I had talked to only a few times. One that hadn't earned my trust yet. Not that any lawyer could. Not after the one I had trusted ended up being in bed with Isabella. I stared at him, pleased that he quavered under my gaze.

"James," he said in a voice that didn't demand an ounce of respect. "We don't know if that's what caused the incident. Malpractice isn't a petty lawsuit. You'll ruin his reputation. We'll need more proof."

I cringed at the word incident. Why did everyone keep saying that? It diminished the situation. This wasn't just some random event. This was my whole fucking life. I wanted to reach across the desk and wrap my hands around his throat.

"Penny called me this morning," he continued. "She wanted to deliver her will to the office. Well, an amendment to the will you had made for her. But I didn't have any appointments open until this afternoon. She was supposed to come in right around now, actually."

The side of my face twitched. I looked away so he couldn't see it. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"She said she wanted to add to it. But based on that phone call, is there any possibility at all that this could have been planned?"

I turned back toward him and leaned forward. "My pregnant wife bleeding out in the back seat of a car? You think that was planned?"

"Signs of suicide..."

I stood up. The chair squeaked behind me against the wooden floorboards. "You don't know my wife. You know nothing about us. So I'll forgive you this once. But if the next words out of your mouth aren't, 'I'm filing the suit,' then you're fired."

"James." He sounded exasperated. "Why else would she want to update her will hours before this happened? I understand that suicide isn't..."

"Stop saying suicide." I slammed my fist against his desk again.

He flinched, but I found no joy in it.

"We have a daughter. She was pregnant with our second child."She has me."She didn't try to kill herself. You'll be hearing from my new lawyer about this slander."

"No lawsuit is going to fix this, James. Go be with your family in their time of need."

"Their need?" My voice cracked. I walked over to the door so I wouldn't strangle him. "It'smyneed. She's my wife." She's my everything. "Go fuck yourself." I slammed the door to his office as I walked out.

The receptionist looked up at me. "Mr. Hunter," she said, "your brother has called for you several times..."

But I was already out the door. The city air was stale.Their need?It felt like my heart was slamming against my ribcage. My eyes landed on a bar down the street.

I felt the familiar twitch, and immediately turned away from it. Alcohol wasn't going to fix this. Nothing could fill this void. I put my hands on my knees.Fuck, I couldn't breathe.